Few people can pull off the tousled hair and billowing-caped flower-power look these days. Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine, however, looks at home being all twitchy fingers and spiralling wrists, resplendent in some sort of diaphanous chiton. She is majestic, like John William Waterhouse's Circe, with the awestruck audience as her swine.

Her swine and her swains, that is, judging by the many shouted declarations of devotion that the singer received. And well she might, with a charisma and stage-presence rarely seen among the bouffanted popstrels or pierced mock-hellians that make up the ranks of modern-day frontwomen. Florence is like something from another time, when icons came from myths or altars, not TV talent contests.

In fact, this flame-haired Boudicca was discovered in a toilet, and she sang a cappella the song that won over her now-manager in the stalls. Hardly the most exciting of her set list, Etta James's "Something's Got a Hold on Me" nevertheless showcased Florence's epic range and perfect pitch to great effect. An acoustic segment proved similarly complementary – so much goes on in any given Florence + the Machine track (there are five of them, plus a string quartet, after all) that it is often hard to pay due attention to Florence's swooping and soaring vocals. But she sang "Hurricane Drunk", one of the real anthemic, rollicking power-numbers from her Mercury-nominated album, Lungs, accompanied only by a harp and a guitar. Starting alone, she managed to be consistently perfect when the instruments joined in. Her control and instinctual grasp of any given melody is as impressive as her performance style, which is a mesmerising mix of the slick and modern, and the goosebump-inducing arcane.

Florence's stage is bedecked with flower garlands and bracketed by two ornamental birdcages; she is like some greenwood deity, riding those volleys of thudding drums. Yet where a band of this size and volume, fronted by a singer with such an enviable set of pipes, could easily descend into a cacophonous mêlée of diverse rhythms and harmonies, Welch's Machine is a well-oiled one, and its constituent parts were neither drowned out nor deafening, crashing through high-octane numbers like "Howl" and "Drumming Song" with accomplished melodrama.

With a concert persona such as this, it is comforting – if slightly disappointing – to hear Florence so human, not to mention humble, as she chats between songs; she is girlish and, some might say, calculatedly overwhelmed by the attention she receives. There have been several comparisons already with Kate Bush, and Welch is certainly as weird, witchy and wistful as that other Babooshka, but she has an energy and vitality that other stage sirens in the indie category often lack. Welch – with her copious talent and gift for enthralling – is without doubt a star who is here to stay.

Harriet Walker, The Independent, 30.09.09

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/florence--the-machine-shepherds-bush-empire-london-1795016.html

 

 

La première salve a été tirée par Marc Laffineur, mardi, lors de la réunion du groupe UMP à l'Assemblée. «Les accusations de viol sur un enfant de 13 ans, ce n'est pas quelque chose d'anodin, quelle que soit la personne qui est soupçonnée d'avoir fait cela, a estimé le député de Maine-et-Loire. Il n'est pas anormal que la justice puisse demander des comptes, et les Français ne comprendraient pas qu'on puise échapper à la justice, que l'on soit artiste, grand ou petit.» Ses collègues l'ont applaudi.

Dans les couloirs, Laffineur a ajouté avoir été «surpris, comme beaucoup de Français, des déclarations un peu rapides de deux ministres vis-à-vis de la justice suisse et la justice américaine.» Sans citer Frédéric Mitterrand ni Bernard Kouchner.

Ce sont leurs déclarations qui ont provoqué l'indignation du groupe UMP, voire sa «consternation», pour reprendre le terme utilisé par la députée de l'Yonne Marie-Louise Fort, auteur d'un texte sur la lutte contre l'inceste.

La police suisse a arrêté Roman Polanski samedi, alors qu'il se rendait à un festival à Zurich. Le cinéaste franco-polonais fait l'objet d'une demande d'extradition des États-Unis, qui le poursuivent pour avoir eu des relations sexuelles avec une mineure sur leur territoire en 1977. Dimanche, Frédéric Mitterrand a expliqué que voir le cinéaste franco-polonais «jeté en pâture pour une histoire ancienne qui n'a pas vraiment de sens» était «absolument épouvantable». «De la même manière qu'il y a une Amérique généreuse que nous aimons, il y aussi une certaine Amérique qui fait peur, et c'est cette Amérique-là qui vient de nous présenter son visage», a enchaîné le ministre de la Culture.

Il a également assuré que Nicolas Sarkozy, avec lequel il avait parlé de l'affaire dans la matinée, suivait le dossier «très attentivement», en ajoutant : «Je pense qu'il est au même diapason d'émotion que moi et que tous les Français». L'Élysée n'a pas démenti. L'entourage présidentiel s'est borné à préciser mardi que le dossier était «très complexe juridiquement». De son côté, Bernard Kouchner a entrepris depuis lundi une série de démarches visant à obtenir la libération de Roman Polanski.

Ces réactions ont inspiré au député UMP du Nord Christian Vanneste un communiqué cinglant sur les «trouvailles» des représentants de «l'ouverture». Il s'est montré particulièrement sévère avec Frédéric Mitterrand et son «jugement impérial sur les bons et les mauvais côtés des États-Unis». Mais, outre que le ministre de la Culture ne s'est jamais défini comme un homme de gauche, il n'a pas été le seul à critiquer l'attitude américaine.

Lundi, le porte-parole adjoint de l'UMP Dominique Paillé est même allé encore plus loin que Frédéric Mitterrand en qualifiant de «très choquante» l'absence de prescription dans le droit américain. Selon Paillé, «une démocratie qui n'admet pas de prescription d'actes délictueux ou criminels est une démocratie malgré tout très particulière».

Le clivage qui divise la majorité entre les pro- et les anti-Polanski traverse tous les partis. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, accusé par François Bayrou d'avoir montré, dans les années 1970, de la «complaisance» pour la pédophilie, a expliqué à Radio Classique que l'affaire Polanski le mettait «mal à l'aise» . «C'est un problème de justice et je trouve qu'un ministre de la Culture, même s'il s'appelle Mitterrand, devrait dire : j'attends de voir les dossiers», a déclaré l'animateur d'Europe Écologie.

Judith Waintraub
http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2009/09/30/01002-20090930ARTFIG00394-l-affaire-polanski-divise-les-politiques-.php

 

 

Tras dos supuestos positivos por "nandrolona" en los controles realizados al término de los partidos Piacenza-Brescia (el 21 de octubre de 2001) y Lazio-Brescia (el 4 de noviembre de ese mismo año), Guardiola fue condenado a cuatro meses de inhabilitación, más una multa de 50.000 euros, por el Comité de Disciplina de la Liga Profesional.

Sin embargo, el español fue exonerado por la justicia ordinaria italiana en octubre de 2007 y presentó una instancia de revisión de la sentencia emitida por la justicia deportiva. Dicha instancia fue aceptada por la Corte de Justicia Federal de la Federación Italiana de Fútbol (FIGC) el pasado 8 de mayo.

No obstante, el Fiscal Antidopaje del CONI, Ettore Torri, hizo pública, el pasado 31 de julio, su decisión de pedir la reapertura del caso, al considerar "inaceptables" los motivos que determinaron la absolución del jugador y entrenador.

Hoy, el Tribunal Nacional Antidopaje, presidido por Francesco Plotino, ha tomado en consideración el recurso, pero finalmente lo ha desestimado, confirmando la decisión de la Corte de Justicia Federal del 8 de mayo.

La Vanguardia, 29.09.09

http://www.lavanguardia.es/deportes/noticias/20090929/53794285269/el-coni-rechaza-reabrir-el-caso-de-dopaje-de-guardiola-brescia-barcelona-liga-profesional-pep-guardi.html

 

A fresh tsunami alert rang out in the capital of Samoa in the South Pacific today, hours after tsunami waves crashed ashore, killing at least 39 people and leaving scores unaccounted for.

A reporter in the capital Apia told New Zealand's National Radio: "There's another warning of another tsunami, people are running for higher ground."

The US Geological Survey earthquake website and that of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii had no immediate reports of a new quake or tsunami in the region.

Reporter Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia told the network there was a lot of panic, but no earthquake had been felt on the island.

Towering tsunami waves caused by a powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa yesterday, flooding and flattening villages, killing dozens of people.

Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning water as survivors fled to higher ground, where they remained huddled hours after the quake struck.

Signs of immense devastation were everywhere, with a giant boat washed ashore and coming to rest on the edge of a road and floodwaters swallowing up cars and homes.

The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn local time about 20 miles below the ocean floor, 120 miles from American Samoa, a US territory home to 65,000 people.

Hampered by power and communications failures, officials struggled to assess the damage and casualties. At least 39 people were killed - 20 on Samoa and 19 on American Samoa - but officials acknowledged today that the death toll seemed sure to rise.

"I don't think anybody is going to be spared in this disaster," said acting American Samoa governor Faoa Sunia.

Mase Akapo, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in American Samoa, reported at least 19 people killed in four different villages on the main island of Tutuila. Officials reported at least 50 injured, and possibly many more.

In neighbouring Samoa, a reporter saw the bodies of about 20 victims in a hospital at Lalomanu town on the south coast of the main island of Upolu, and said the surrounding tourist coast had been devastated. At least three villages were flattened.

Mr Sunia declared a state of emergency in American Samoa, describing "immense and widespread damage to individual, public and commercial buildings in coastal areas" along with death and injury. Governor Togiola Tulafono, who was in Honolulu for a conference, said more victims could be found when rescuers reached areas inaccessible by roads.

Of the death toll, New Zealand's acting prime minister Bill English said that there had "really only been guesses, but some of these places appear to have been hit very hard, and you would expect considerable loss of life".

"I would underline the fact that this is a situation that's unfolding," Mr English said. "We don't have information about the full impact and we do have some real concern that over the next 12 hours the picture could look worse rather than better."

America Samoa is home to a US national park that appeared to be especially hard-hit. Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, California, said staff had been able to locate only 20% of the park's 13 to 15 employees and 30 to 50 volunteers.

Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet high roared ashore soon afterwards, reaching up to a mile inland.

Residents in both Samoa and American Samoa reported being shaken awake by the quake, which lasted two to three minutes. It was followed by at least three large aftershocks of at least 5.6 magnitude.

New Zealander Graeme Ansell said the beach village of Sau Sau Beach Fale was levelled.

"It was very quick. The whole village has been wiped out," he told New Zealand's National Radio from a hill near Samoa's capital Apia.

"There's not a building standing. We've all clambered up hills, and one of our party has a broken leg. There will be people in a great lot of need round here."

The Samoan capital was virtually deserted with schools and businesses closed.

Local media said they had reports of landslides in the Solosolo region of the main Samoan island of Upolu and damage to plantations in the countryside outside Apia.

Eni Faleomavaega, who represents American Samoa as a non-voting delegate in the US House of Representatives, said he had talked to people by telephone who said that Pago Pago - just a few feet above sea level - was levelled.

In Washington, President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration, making government funds available to victims in American Samoa.

The Independent, 30.09.09

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/scores-dead-in-tsunami-in-pacific-islands-1795329.html

 

Rossignol du raï

1994 : Cette année-là, Cheb Hasni est au faîte de sa gloire. A Oran, il est adulé par toute la jeunesse et on le surnomme le Rossignol du raï. Pourtant, ce n’est pas vraiment la fête en Algérie. Les islamistes tentent d’imposer leur loi et multiplient les intimidations, notamment envers le milieu raï. Le 29 septembre 1994, peu avant midi, Cheb Hasni est assassiné dans la rue, de deux balles… Toute l’Algérie est en émoi et des milliers de fans assistent à son enterrement. Quinze ans ont passé. Attablé à la Cafétéria Cheb Hasni, devant un café serré qui refroidit, son frère Houari tente de se rappeler l’enfance modeste, l’adolescence turbulente et enfin de la courte carrière de Hasni, qui chantait "avec le cœur". Mais la douleur reste trop vive et les larmes montent vite.

Fil du quartier

Hasni, pionnier du raï love

 

 

Como en otros casos de la política mexicana, es mucho más interesante el cómo que el qué. Acto uno: a escasos días de la elección del 5 de julio pasado, un polémico fallo del máximo tribunal electoral deja fuera a una candidata del PRD a la delegación de Iztapalapa (un conjunto de barrios donde habitan más de 1,8 millones de personas), que había sido cuestionada legalmente por... otra candidata del PRD. Acto dos: López Obrador idea un mecanismo mediante el cual llama a sus partidarios a que voten por un candidato de paja: Juanito, que en realidad competía por otra formación de izquierda, Partido del Trabajo (PT). Acto tres: en una asamblea popular, López Obrador hace que Juanito, cuyo nombre real es Rafael Acosta, jure que "no se la va a creer", que renunciará apenas tome posesión para que la candidata imposibilitada por el tribunal llegue, a pesar de todo, al poder. Acto cuatro: frente a los pronósticos de los analistas de los medios de comunicación, y con una candidata del PRD también compitiendo en contra, los perredistas seguidores de López Obrador ganan votando por el PT. Acto cinco: Juanito escucha el canto de las sirenas y se pasa tres meses amagando: "Y si me quedara a gobernar".

Tres meses hasta que, después de escuchar el lunes por la noche al jefe de Gobierno capitalino, de súbito, Juanito pasó en menos de 24 horas de posar semidesnudo en un concurso de fisioculturismo -con un flácido abdomen a prueba de vergüenzas propias y ajenas- a asegurar que por la presión de las últimas semanas se ha sentido mal del corazón y que mejor renuncia.

La figura de Juanito no hubiera crecido tanto si con su deshojar la margarita de "me voy, no me voy...", no hubiera, por un lado, jugado con el destino de una delegación cuyo presupuesto anual es de 3.000 millones de pesos, el equivalente a más de 150 millones de euros, y un ramillete de problemas de inseguridad y desabastecimiento permanente de servicios como el agua potable. Y por otro lado, si su renuencia a cumplir su promesa no hubiera sido vista como una suerte de venganza frente a López Obrador, que nunca más se hizo cargo de él, en contraste con partidos como el derechista Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), que empezó a frecuentar a Juanito para pedirle que se quedara en el cargo.

De pronto, con sus 51 años de vida, Juanito tuvo algo más que agregar a su extenso currículum de superviviente. Hoy es todavía jefe delegacional electo, título que suma a sus trabajos como camarero, cantinero, entrenador de fútbol (de donde le viene el mote, porque dirigía un equipo infantil en el que una decena de sus jugadores se llamaban Juan), comerciante ambulante en activo, extra en películas softporno, vendedor de helados y manifestante profesional en defensa del supuesto triunfo electoral de López Obrador en 2006.

Precisamente a partir de su defensa de López Obrador en las protestas poselectorales, Juanito adoptó una bandita tricolor que se amarra en la cabeza todos los días. Con ella puesta, jurará mañana honrar el cargo de delegado de Iztapalapa, puesto en el que estará apenas unos minutos. Luego pedirá licencia para ausentarse, lo sustituirá la candidata que nunca pudo competir. Juanito no se irá, sin embargo, con las manos vacías: sumará a su biografía, en la que hay episodios de balazos y un hijo muerto, varias subdirecciones de la delegación que ni en sueños pudo ganar por sí solo, pero de la que al menos un pedazo de ese Gobierno ya le pertenece. ¿De veras, a fin de cuentas, perdió Juanito?

Salvador Camarena, El Pais, 30.09.09

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/picaro/mexicano/siglo/XXI/elpepuint/20090930elpepuint_4/Tes

 

 

And in fact, China soon granted Namibia a big low-interest loan, which Namibia tapped to buy $55.3 million worth of Chinese-made cargo scanners to deter smugglers. It was a neat illustration, Chinese officials said, of how doing good in Namibia could do well for China, too.

Or so it seemed until Namibia charged that the state-controlled company selected by China to provide the scanners — a company until recently run by President Hu’s son — had facilitated the deal with millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks. And until China threw up barriers when Namibian investigators asked for help looking into the matter.

Now the scanners seem to illustrate something else: the aura of boosterism, secrecy and back-room deals that has clouded China’s use of billions of dollars in foreign aid to court the developing world.

From Pakistan to Angola to Kyrgyzstan, China is using its enormous pool of foreign currency savings to cement diplomatic alliances, secure access to natural resources and drum up business for its flagship companies. Foreign aid — typically cut-rate loans, sometimes bundled with more commercial lines of credit — is central to this effort.

Leaders of developing nations have embraced China’s sales pitch of easy credit, without Western-style demands for political or economic reform, for a host of unmet needs. The results can be clearly seen in new roads, power plants, and telecommunications networks across the African continent — more than 200 projects since 2001, many financed with preferential loans from the Chinese government’s Exim Bank.

Increasingly, though, experts argue that China’s aid comes with a major catch: It must be used to buy goods or services from companies, many of them state-controlled, that Chinese officials select themselves. Competitive bidding by the borrowing nation is discouraged, and China pulls a veil over vital data like project costs, loan terms and repayment conditions. Even the dollar amount of loans offered as foreign aid is treated as a state secret.

Anticorruption crusaders complain that secrecy invites corruption, and that corruption debases foreign assistance.

“China is using this financing to buy the loyalty of the political elite,” said Harry Roque, a University of the Philippines law professor who is challenging the legality of Chinese-financed projects in the Philippines. “It is a very effective tool of soft diplomacy. But it is bad for the citizens who have to repay these loans for graft-ridden contracts.”

In fact, such secrecy runs counter to international norms for foreign assistance. In a part of the world prone to corruption and poor governance, it also raises questions about who actually benefits from China’s projects. The answers, international development specialists say, are hidden from public view.

“We know more about China’s military expenditures than we do about its foreign aid,” said David Shambaugh, an author and China scholar at George Washington University. “Foreign aid really is a glaring contradiction to the broader trend of China’s adherence to international norms. It is so strikingly opaque it really makes one wonder what they are trying to hide.”

Until recently, wealthy nations could hardly hold themselves out as an example of how to run foreign aid, either. Many projects turned out to be tainted by corruption or geared to enrich the donor nation’s contractors, not the impoverished borrowers. But over the past 10 or 15 years, some 30 developed nations under the umbrella of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) have made a concerted effort to clean up their assistance programs.

They demanded that foreign money be awarded and spent transparently, using competitive bidding and outlawing bribery. Increasingly, they also are also pushing to give borrowers more choice among suppliers and contractors, rather than insisting that funds be recycled back to the donor nation’s companies.

China, which is not a member of the O.E.C.D., is operating under rules that the West has largely abandoned. It mixes aid and business in secret government-to-government agreements. It requires that foreign aid contracts be awarded to Chinese contractors it picks through a closed-door bidding process in Beijing. Its attempts to prevent corrupt practices by its companies overseas appear weak.

Some developing nations insist on independently comparing prices before accepting China’s largesse. Others do not bother. “Very often they are getting something they wouldn’t be able to get without China’s financing,” said Chris Alden, a specialist on China-African relations with the London School of Economics and Political Science. “They presume that the Chinese are going to give value for money.”

Development experts say they have tried to convince the Chinese government that better safeguards and a more open process will enhance its efforts to gain influence and business. If its projects collapse because of kickbacks or inflated costs, they argue, China will end up exporting not only goods and services, but a reputation for corruption that it is already battling at home.

But Deborah Brautigam, the author of a coming book on China’s economic ties with Africa titled “The Dragon’s Gift,” says Beijing is hesitant to hobble its companies with Western-style restraints before they have become world-class competitors.

Thinking Business, Not Ethics

“The Chinese are kind of starting out where everyone else was years ago, and they see themselves as being at a disadvantage,” Ms. Brautigam said. “The Chinese don’t particularly want a big scandal. That doesn’t further their interests. They just want their companies to get business.”

Sometimes they get both. In 2007, the Philippines was forced to cancel a $460 million contract with the Beijing scanner company, Nuctech Company Ltd., to set up satellite-based classroom instruction after critics protested the company had no expertise in education.

It also canceled a $329 million contract awarded to ZTE Corporation, a state-controlled Chinese communications company, after allegations of enormous kickbacks. ZTE denied bribing anyone, but the controversy has lingered. Last month an antigraft panel recommended filing criminal charges against two Philippines officials in connection with the contract.

A Manila-based nonprofit group, the Center for International Law, has mounted a legal challenge against still another Chinese contract in the Philippines, to build a $500 million railroad. Professor Roque, who leads the center, contends that the price of China’s state-owned contractor “was simply plucked out of the sky.” Officially, China’s directive to its companies is toe an ethical line overseas.

“Our enterprises must conform to international rules when running business, must be open and transparent, should go through a bidding process for big projects and forbid inappropriate deals and reject corruption and kickbacks,” Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, told a group of Chinese businessmen in Zambia in 2006.

But China has no specific law against bribing foreign officials. And the government seems none too eager to investigate or punish companies it selects if they turn out to have engaged in shady practices overseas.

Indeed, it has an added incentive to look the other way because of the state’s ties to many foreign aid contractors — connections that sometimes extend to families of the Communist Party elite.

In January, for example, the World Bank barred four state-controlled Chinese companies from competing for its work after an investigation showed that they tried to rig bids for bank projects in the Philippines. But two of those companies remain on the Chinese Commerce Ministry’s list of approved foreign aid contractors, according to its Web site.

The Namibia controversy is especially delicate because until late last year, the contractor’s president was Mr. Hu’s son, Hu Haifeng. The younger Mr. Hu is now Communist Party secretary of an umbrella company that includes Nuctech and dozens of other companies. As soon as allegations against the company surfaced this summer, China’s censors swung into action, blocking all mention of the scandal in the Chinese news media and on the Internet.

“This is a signal to everyone to back off,” said Russell Leigh Moses, an analyst of Chinese politics in Beijing. “Everyone goes into default mode, because once you get the ball rolling, no one knows where it will stop. No one wants their rice bowl broken.”

Nuctech has denied any wrongdoing in court papers filed here in Windhoek. A spokeswoman said the company had no comment because the matter was unresolved. China’s Commerce Ministry and other government agencies did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Namibia’s anticorruption investigators allege that Nuctech funneled $4.2 million in kickbacks to a front company set up by a Namibian official, who split the funds with her business partner and Nuctech’s southern Africa representative, a Chinese citizen.

A Deal Ends in Arrests

China has promoted Nuctech as one of its global “champions.” In 10 years the company has gained customers in more than 60 countries, marketing advanced-technology scanners that help detect contraband or dangerous materials inside cargo containers. Nuctech’s spokesman says it is the only Chinese company that makes such equipment.

The Namibian government was interested in equipping its airports, seaports and border posts with scanners to comply with stricter regulations on international commerce. On a state visit to China in 2005, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Namibia’s president, visited Nuctech’s headquarters and factory, according to court testimony. The following year, Nuctech sent a representative, Yang Fan, to Windhoek, Namibia’s capital.

Hu Jintao’s visit to Windhoek a few months later opened up an option for finance. “China says the sky is the limit. Just say what you want,” said Carl Schlettwein, the permanent secretary of the Namibian Finance Ministry, who participated in the negotiations.

At first, Mr. Schlettwein said, the talks stalled because Namibia was unwilling to grant China access to its substantial mineral deposits in exchange for lines of credit. Once China dropped that condition, Namibia agreed in principle to a $100 million, 20-year-loan at a 2.5 percent interest rate, then well below the market. “Purely from a financial point of view, it was a fine deal,” Mr. Schlettwein said.

Namibian officials decided to draw on the credit line to finance most of the cost of the scanners. Mr. Schlettwein, who negotiated the scanner contract, said he wanted to seek competitive bids from scanner suppliers around the world, but Chinese negotiators refused.

“They said ‘that is not our system,’ “ he said. “ ‘We tell you from whom you buy the equipment.’ All of us, including the minister, were very worried about the nontransparent way of doing things,” he said, but reasoned that the Chinese government “will not unduly cheat us.”

Last March, less than a week after the Finance Ministry paid Nuctech an initial $12.8 million, Mr. Schlettwein’s unease turned to distress.

A Windhoek bank official, following the strictures of Namibia’s new money-laundering act, called to ask why Nuctech had deposited $4.2 million in the account of a consulting company set up by Tekla Lameck, a Namibian public service commissioner.

Mr. Schlettwein, who says that he has never met Ms. Lameck and that she had nothing to do with the scanner purchase, alerted Namibia’s anticorruption commission. In July, Ms. Lameck, her business partner and Nuctech’s representative in Windhoek were arrested on suspicion of violating Namibia’s anticorruption law. All three have denied wrongdoing.

Investigations Galore

Investigators charge that Nuctech agreed to hire Ms. Lameck’s consulting company, Teko Trading, in 2007, a month after President Hu’s visit. Nuctech agreed to pay Teko 10 percent of the contract if the average price of one scanner was $2.5 million. If the price was higher, Nuctech would pay Teko 50 percent of the added cost. A subsequent agreement fixed the amount of commissions at $12.8 million, according to court records.

At his bail hearing last month, Yang Fan, Nuctech’s representative, said his company hired Teko because “Teko explained how to do business here in Namibia.” He did not elaborate. But in 2007, another Namibian official complained to the anticorruption commission that Ms. Lameck had introduced herself to the Chinese Embassy in Windhoek as a representative of Swapo, Namibia’s governing political party. She claimed that no business could be done in Namibia without Swapo’s involvement, the complainant said.

Investigators have been seeking Nuctech’s explanation of the affair for more than two months. There is little sign the company has complied with their requests, although investigators say they remain hopeful.

Namibia’s chief national prosecutor, Martha Imalwa, traveled to Beijing in July, hoping to question officials from Nuctech and another company involved in a separate inquiry. But according to her deputy, Danie Small, Ms. Imalwa was allowed to present questions only to the international division of China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

A court has temporarily frozen $12.8 million in Nuctech’s assets while the inquiry continues. Meanwhile, at Namibia’s Finance Ministry, Mr. Schlettwein is belatedly trying to determine what other buyers paid for comparable scanners. When he asked South African officials for pricing information, he said, he was told Nuctech’s contract there is also under investigation.

Perhaps predictably, competitors say Namibia agreed to pay far too much. Peter Kant, a vice-president at Nuctech’s American rival, Rapiscan Systems, said that comparable equipment and services costs about $28 million, or $25 million less than Nuctech’s contract.

Mr. Schlettwein last month tried to send a letter through official channels to Rong Yonglin, Nuctech’s chairman, to ask that the contract be renegotiated. But a Chinese Embassy official in Windhoek refused to accept the correspondence, saying he knew no one with that name.

Sharon LaFraniere and John Grobler, The New York Times, 22.09.09

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/world/africa/22namibia.html?pagewanted=1&ref=africa

 

L'opéra a toujours été enclin à diviniser ses stars, bien avant l'invention du cinéma. L'arrivée des médias modernes a favorisé certaines confusions des genres : on se souvient des films hollywoodiens tournés par le ténor Mario Lanza dans les années 1950, plus que de ses apparitions sur scène. Depuis qu'elle a été absorbée par la pieuvre médiatique, Anna Netrebko sait bien qu'elle est sur le fil du rasoir, entre deux chemins diamétralement opposés : le culte de l'image et du marketing d'une part, avec ce qu'il suppose de superficialité, la discipline la plus exigeante qui soit d'autre part, celle du chant lyrique, véritable ascèse, travail inlassable et secret.

Au fond, elle ne s'en sort pas mal, cette femme moderne de 38 ans, qui maîtrise excellemment les outils de communication et de promotion. Si l'on oublie une histoire de Cendrillon montée en épingle pour faire pleurer dans les chaumières (elle fait des ménages au Théâtre Mariinsky pour payer ses études au Conservatoire de Saint-Pétersbourg), son parcours est assez classique. Découverte par Valery Gergiev, elle intègre à 24 ans la troupe du Kirov, qui se fait dans le monde entier l'ambassadeur de l'opéra russe.

Débutante en Suzanne des Noces de Figaro, elle se fait connaître à la faveur des tournées internationales : la Scala, le Met, le Festival de Salzbourg lui font les yeux doux. Il est vrai que, si sa voix est charmante, elle a aussi un physique de cinéma. Deutsche Grammophon la prend dans son écurie : son premier CD d'air d'opéras, en 2003, est en tête des ventes classiques. En Allemagne et surtout en Autriche où elle s'installe et se fait naturaliser, c'est une lame de fond. Vincent Paterson, le réalisateur des clips de Michael Jackson et Madonna, la filme dans The Woman, The Voice, où les airs d'opéra sont assaisonnés à la sauce MTV.

On lui trouve un partenaire à sa mesure en la personne du ténor Rolando Villazon, déjà favori du public : deux acteurs nés, crédibles, l'âge du rôle. Et voilà qu'Universal tient sa revanche sur EMI qui produit Alagna et Gheorghiu. Une Traviata aussitôt légendaire couronne leur partenariat scénique incandescent, à Salzbourg, en 2005, suivie de L'Élixir d'amour et de Manon. Son mariage avec le baryton uruguayen Erwin Schrott, la naissance de leur fils en septembre dernier sont suivis avec passion par les médias : la voilà aussi présente dans les rubriques people que dans les pages culture.

L'amateur d'art lyrique aime avoir le cœur qui chavire… Mais écoutons-la sans la regarder : une jolie voix, certes, chaude et fruitée, mais peu personnelle, pas toujours souveraine dans les vocalises, d'une diction souvent floue. Rien de rédhibitoire, rien d'inoubliable. Cela signifierait-il que, pour être une diva aujourd'hui, la voix ne suffit plus ?

Elle reprendra également «L'Élixir d'amour» à l'Opéra Bastille, à partir du 10 octobre.

Christian Merlin, Le Figaro, 29.09.09

http://www.lefigaro.fr/musique/2009/09/29/03006-20090929ARTFIG00416-anna-netrebkosoprano-glamouret-mediatique-.php

 

 

 

 

 

Thousands had marched to the football stadium in downtown Conakry on Monday to protest against Guinea's military junta. Nearly 160 people paid for that show of dissent with their lives, it emerged yesterday, some gunned down in a hail of bullets, other skewered by bayonets as they tried to flee or rescue the women being raped by soldiers in the stands.

As the full scale of the massacre became known, condemnation poured in from around the world. France, the country's former colonial ruler, suspended military aid and the African Union threatened sanctions. The French also called an emergency EU meeting for today to discuss punishing those individuals behind the "savage and bloody" repression.

An estimated 50,000 people had defied a ban on rallies and joined an opposition protest against the rule of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who seized power in a bloodless coup in December. The military ruler had promised not to stand in elections in January but rumours that he would contest them after all prompted the democracy rally.

Witnesses recounted how security forces fired indiscriminately into the crowd just after noon on Monday. "Our [opposition] leaders didn't even have a chance to speak. I saw the armed men shooting directly into the crowds and shooting in the air – there was tear gas and gunshots and total panic; we ran for our lives," one witness told Human Rights Watch.

There were also reports of soldiers using knives and bayonets to finish off those protesters who had dodged the bullets, as well as female demonstrators being raped and sexually assaulted. "They were raping women in broad daylight," opposition activist Moctar Diallo told Radio France International. "Women were stripped naked. The soldiers were putting their rifles in the vaginas of these women ... I saw this myself."

Despite members of his red beret-wearing presidential guard being involved in Monday's bloodbath, Captain Camara shrugged off accusations of culpability, saying the security forces were beyond his control.

"I am very sorry," the junta leader told Radio France International. "This clash did not take place because of me... Those people who committed those atrocities were uncontrollable elements in the military. Even I, as head of state in this very tense situation, cannot claim to be able to control those elements in the military."

A later government statement noted that "according to preliminary investigations, most of the innocent victims died as a result of being crushed in the crowd."

Mr Diallo called on the military ruler to stand down. "The people of Guinea want him to leave," he said. "It's not about whether [he] runs or not in next year's election. He needs to go now."

Corinne Dufka, a West Africa expert at Human Rights Watch, said the slaughter was "shocking even by the abusive standards of Guinea's coup government". The military junta had pledged to break with Guinea's abusive past, she said; "but these deadly acts of repression and excessive use of force show how empty those promises were".

Captain Camara was unknown outside military circles until last December. Six hours after the death of the dictator Lansana Conté was announced, he broke into the state broadcaster, went on air and declared a coup d'etat.

After a quarter of a century of President Conté's rule, Guineans embraced the young captain and tuned in to the so-called Dadis show to see him name and shame drug barons, humiliate corrupt officials and interrogate the henchmen of the toppled authoritarian regime on television.

But the novelty value wore off, thanks to his unkept promises. First he delayed elections until 2010 and then appeared to renege on a pledge to stay out of the race.

Claire Soares, The Independent, 30.09.09

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/horror-of-guinea-stadium-massacre-that-killed-157-1795165.html

 

Un revers pour les ministères de l'Immigration et de la Justice. La quasi-totalité des étrangers en situation irrégulière placés en rétention après le démantèlement de la «jungle» de Calais le 22 septembre ont été libérés une semaine après, a annoncé mardi la Cimade. Selon l'association, seule présente dans les centres de rétention, 124 des 138 sans-papiers arrêtés, majoritairement des Afghans, ont en effet été relâchés, suite à des décisions de justice. Des procédures seraient encore en cours pour la quinzaine de personnes qui reste en rétention.

«Je n'ai jamais dit que tout s'achevait avec le démantèlement de la ‘jungle'. J'ai au contraire dit que c'était un travail de longue haleine», a réagi le ministre de l'Immigration Eric Besson sur France 2. Nous ne luttons pas contre les migrants - même s'ils doivent savoir qu'en France, il faut venir en situation régulière -, nous menons une lutte acharnée contre les passeurs qui exploitent la misère humaine.»

Les juges des libertés et de la détention (JLD), qui se sont prononcés sur «le respect des droits des personnes», ont considéré que celles-ci «n'avaient pas pu (les) exercer et, qu'une partie d'entre elles étaient mineures et ne pouvaient donc être placées en rétention», a expliqué la Cimade. Et si, sur injonction du garde des Sceaux, «les procureurs ont systématiquement fait appel des décisions des JLD», les juges des cours d'appel ont confirmé ces remises en liberté. Toujours selon l'association, les tribunaux administratifs ont par ailleurs prononcé «plusieurs dizaines d'annulations» d'arrêtés de reconduite à la frontière au motif du non-respect du droit de demande d'asile. Contactés par Lefigaro.fr, ni le ministère de la Justice ni celui de l'Immigration ne pouvaient commenter ces informations dans l'immédiat.

Deux nouvelles opérations avant la fin de la semaine

«L'évacuation de la jungle de Calais s'est faite au mépris des droits fondamentaux», estime la Cimade, confortée par ces décisions de justice. Et l'association de qualifier d'«inacceptable» la perspective de nouvelles opérations du type de celle réalisée à Calais pour tenter de «reconduire» des migrants en Afghanistan, «un pays en guerre». Le ministre de l'Immigration, Eric Besson, a en effet annoncé mardi que «deux nouvelles opérations seront organisées avant la fin de la semaine», expliquant que les filières clandestines à destination de la Grande-Bretagne «cherchent systématiquement à reconstruire de nouvelles plateformes de transit».

Lundi, le ministère de l'Immigration saluait dans un communiqué le «succès» du démantèlement de la jungle de Calais, mais s'étonnait que le taux de remise en liberté soit très différent selon les juges à l'origine des décisions (0% de remise en liberté à Meaux, 100% à Marseille, Toulouse, Nice ou Lyon). «Tout en restant parfaitement respectueux de l'indépendance des juridictions, il n'est pas interdit de constater que certaines d'entre elles libèrent quasi systématiquement les étrangers en situation irrégulière qui leur sont présentés», insistait le communiqué.

Après les dernières audiences prévues mercredi, plusieurs associations, dont la Cimade, l'Association des avocats de France (SAF) et le Groupe d'information et de soutien des immigrés (Gisti), doivent présenter jeudi «un bilan global des décisions judiciaires intervenues et des irrégularités sanctionnées».

B.H., Le Figaro, 29.09.09

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2009/09/29/01016-20090929ARTFIG00570-jungle-de-calais-la-plupart-des-migrants-ont-ete-relaches-.php

 

 

En principio, Ferrari pretendía hacer oficial ayer la incorporación de Alonso para 2010, pero las dificultades que han encontrado sus abogados para rescindir su compromiso con el finlandés Kimi Raikkonen han ralentizado los últimos detalles. McLaren-Mercedes puede anunciar hoy mismo la vuelta a sus filas de Raikkonen, una circunstancia que daría luz verde a la Scuderia para presentar al español.

Alonso percibirá en Ferrari alrededor de 25 millones de euros anuales, según anunció el programa El Larguero, de la cadena SER, y firmará un contrato por tres temporadas, ampliable hasta seis siempre que ambas partes estén de acuerdo.

En definitiva, el ovetense se convertirá en el piloto mejor pagado de la F-1 actual, por más que sus emolumentos serán inferiores a los que ha percibido Raikkonen este mismo curso (roza los 30 millones en concepto de ficha) y a los que ingresó el alemán Michael Schumacher, siete veces campeón mundial, en sus años en la firma italiana (unos 35 millones anuales). Con todo, el nuevo contrato de Alonso, que se firmó en julio pasado, confirma la progresión que han experimentado sus ganancias desde que debutó en el Mundial, en 2001, al volante de un modesto Minardi (unos 150.000 euros). De hecho, en 2010 cobrará 166 veces más que entonces.

La entrada del Banco Santander como uno de los patrocinadores principales de Ferrari ha sido también muy importante para cuadrar todos los números que suponen la llegada de Alonso. Para poder ofrecerle el volante de uno de los bólidos de Il Cavallino Rampante, la marca ha tenido que desprenderse de Raikkonen, que tenía un contrato firmado hasta el final del año que viene.

Según fuentes cercanas al nórdico, conocido como Iceman (El Hombre de Hielo), el total que debía percibir entre la indemnización y el sueldo por desvincularse del equipo con el que fue campeón en 2007 era de unos 65 millones, una cifra descabellada. Al parecer, Raikkonen ha aceptado finalmente rescindir su acuerdo por unos 45 millones, más el sueldo que vaya a percibir en McLaren, unos 20 millones. Fuentes de McLaren indicaron que querían a Raikkonen, pero se negaban a pagarle la ficha que les pidió inicialmente. El Santander, que mantendrá el acuerdo de patrocinio que tiene con la escudería de las flechas de plata, podría hacerse cargo de la mitad de su sueldo y de una parte de la indemnización.

Alonso correrá el año que viene junto a Felipe Massa y Ferrari tendrá a Giancarlo Fisichella y Marc Gené como pilotos reserva. El brasileño, que se restablece del impacto que recibió en su cabeza durante la sesión de clasificación del Gran Premio de Hungría, cuando un muelle se desprendió del coche de su compatriota Rubens Barrichello y le golpeó, ha iniciado ya el trabajo físico y ayer se subió por primera vez a un kart en un circuito de São Paulo. "La lluvia le impidió alargar su entrenamiento. Sólo pudo dar cinco vueltas", dijo un portavoz. Massa comentó que se había sentido bien y que su objetivo era competir ya en una carrera de karts el 29 de noviembre, en Brasil. En Maranello esperan poder confirmar su total recuperación y comienzan a pensar incluso en la posibilidad de que pueda correr en Abu Dahbi, la última cita del calendario, el 1 de noviembre.

El retorno de Massa, sin embargo, no eclipsará la llegada de Alonso. El asturiano se integrará en el equipo italiano con todos los honores, precedido por la fama de ser uno de los mejores de la parrilla. De hecho, doblará el sueldo de su compañero de escudería -y eso sin incluir sus ingresos publicitarios, que también se multiplicarán-. Su carisma en el paddock es desbordante y el seguimiento de que es objeto supera al de cualquier otro piloto, incluyendo al británico Lewis Hamilton y a Raikkonen. Con su llegada a Ferrari, se convertirá además en uno de los deportistas mejor pagados.

Su presentación oficial se realizará probablemente con toda la pompa el 15 de noviembre como clausura de la fiesta anual de Ferrari, que, por primera vez, se ha desplazado de Italia a Valencia.

Manel Serras, El Pais, 30.09.09

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/Ferrari/bana/oro/Alonso/elpepidep/20090930elpepidep_12/Tes

 

There is something magical about Calafate. A speck of a town in the vast, windswept wilderness of Patagonia, it thrives against the odds.

The rest of Argentina is suffering unemployment and poverty but here, along Avenida San Martin and surrounding streets, all you see are shiny boutiques, gourmet restaurants and 4x4s. On the lake shore new hotels and guesthouses greet visitors with champagne.

Even the Perito Moreno glacier, the town's tourist magnet, is doing well: it is one of a handful of glaciers worldwide to have withstood warmer temperatures.

Few in Calafate, however, have flourished quite as much as President Cristina Kirchner and her husband, Nestor. In addition to owning a weekend retreat the first couple has invested heavily in land and property, reaping spectacular returns.

"See that place? Theirs," said Osvaldo Leon, slowing his taxi by Hotel Alto Calafate. "And that place over there," – he pointed to Casa Los Sauces, a new boutique hotel – "theirs too. This town has got Kirchner stamped all over it."

Cristina, keen on style and glamour, is said to have personally overseen the hotels' eclectic blends of antique and modern design.

The first couple has declared ownership of 28 properties (not all in Calafate) valued at $3.8m (£3.5m), four companies worth $4.8m and bank deposits of $8.4m.

A plot of municipal land bought for $34,400 in 2006 garnered $1.64m when sold on last year. Since coming to power in 2003 their wealth has exploded from $1.7m to $12m.

The problem is that many Argentinians consider these rewards not so much magical as dodgy: the result, it is claimed, of using influence over local authorities for financial gain. Opposition members of congress have called the Calafate property bonanza a scandal and demanded an inquiry.

Cristina and her husband, who served as president before her in an unusual power tandem, have denied any wrongdoing and said high office should be no impediment to astute business deals. "That is the essence of capitalism," said a spokesman.

Fair or not, the perception of sleaze has fed a backlash which has devastated the Kirchners' approval ratings and cost them control of congress, turning the administration into a potential lame duck. It is a precipitous fall for spouses who once reigned as the saviours of Argentina.

Nestor won the presidency in 2003 on a Peronist ticket when the country was reeling from an economic collapse. He shepherded it through a remarkable recovery and in 2007 handed the baton to his wife, a veteran politician in her own right. Queen Cristina, as she was known to some, was elected in a landslide, cementing a formidable dynasty.

Then things started to go wrong. The recovery stalled, poverty and crime surged and the government lost a battle with farmers over export taxes. The golden couple swiftly lost their shine.

"Most pollsters place them between 20% and 30%," said Felipe Noguera, a political analyst. "The economy is no longer going strongly. Most indicators are pointing in the wrong direction."

The Kirchners, who as lawyers championed human rights cases, used their Patagonian roots to distance themselves from the traditional – and corrupt – Buenos Aires elite. Nestor revelled in the nickname "the penguin".

Revelations about their business dealings have tainted that image, said Noguera. "More and more Nestor – and to an extent his wife – are seen as one more politician. They can no longer distinguish themselves on this (anti-corruption) issue."

It is no coincidence that a spotlight has fallen on their finances since relations soured with the media giant, Grupo Clarin. Enraged by negative coverage, which she blamed for losing congressional control in mid-term elections, the president went on the offensive.

She proposed a law that would dismantle Clarin's newspaper and cable TV empire. Clarin has responded with a blitz of damaging stories, many focusing on the first couple's finances.

"The government is in an open war against the media," said Daniel Kerner, of the political consultancy Eurasia Group. "Journalists for the first time since 2003 have a strong incentive to start reporting on these issues. I think we will see more corruption scandals. As the government is unpopular, people are more receptive to this kind of story."

With the Kirchners fighting on multiple fronts – the media, farmers, the middle class, rival Peronist factions – voters have become weary. "Nestor's aggressive style worked well initially when Argentina was digging itself out of the crisis," said Gracielea Romer, an analyst. "The problem is that they have continued in that style and people are looking for leadership that is more conservative and less confrontational."

At weekends the couple leave Buenos Aires battles behind them and in the executive jet – Tango 1 – head for the icy winds and stark beauty of Calafate.

If the polls are right the Kirchner dynasty will not survive the next election. In which case, Cristina and Nestor will have reason to stay on in, and savour, their Patagonian retreat. Their house affords a view of a magnificent lake the colour of silver.

Rory Carroll, The Guardian, 29.09.09

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/29/argentina-president-cristina-nestor-kirchner

 

 

L'histoire, inspirée d'un fait divers, n'est pas originale. Elle s'inspire de l'aventure de Mark Whitacre, biochimiste et cadre supérieur d'un géant américain de l'agroalimentaire (Archer Daniels Midlands), qui devint, de 1992 à 1996, une taupe du FBI au sein de l'entreprise.

L'action est filmée dans la ville même où se trouve l'entreprise, à Decatur dans l'Illinois. Matt Damon joue le rôle de ce golden boy replet, parangon de ringardise dès sa première apparition sur l'écran. Averti d'une fuite industrielle par un de ses contacts japonais, Mark s'en ouvre aussitôt à ses patrons qui mettent le FBI en relation avec lui pour tenter de coincer la source indélicate.

Lesté de quinze kilos

Le film lance ainsi une première fausse piste. Il y en aura d'autres, disposées sous les pieds de spectateurs qui ne demandent qu'à se laisser glisser. Contre toute attente, Mark devient à son tour informateur en confiant au FBI ses soupçons concernant l'entente illicite entre ses patrons et leurs concurrents sur le prix d'un complément alimentaire.

Reste à le prouver. Voici donc le transpirant Whitacre transformé en 007 technologique, bardé de micros et de caméras, lancé dans un formidable double jeu destiné à faire triompher la vérité. Mais quelle vérité, au juste ? La clé du film est à chercher dans la troublante personnalité de Whitacre. Improbable mélange d'inspecteur Clouzot, de Fantomas et de Monsieur Homais, cet homme entraîne tout le monde, y compris le FBI, dans la sarabande d'un plan où il finit lui-même par se perdre.

Cette trame authentique où, une fois de plus, la réalité aura dépassé de très loin la fiction, il revient néanmoins à la fiction de lui conférer son inquiétante loufoquerie. Difficile de ne pas penser, dans un registre similaire, au récent Burn After Reading (2008), des frères Coen, où le délire général de manipulation confine au grotesque. Moins farcesque et donc plus inquiétant, The Informant ! repose sur une belle trouvaille narrative, qui consiste à mettre en parallèle l'action proprement dite et le commentaire mental du personnage principal - le spectateur est ainsi plongé dans un état d'exquise intranquillité.

S'ajoute un atout majeur : l'interprétation de Matt Damon. Lesté d'une quinzaine de kilos supplémentaires, affublé d'un imper mastic, d'une perruque aux allures de soufflé, d'une moustache à côté de la plaque et de lunettes rectangulaires anti-héroïques, il est proprement méconnaissable et confondant de justesse dans ce rôle où la veulerie le dispute au génie.

Frégolisme

Cette capacité à se glisser dans la peau d'un personnage, à se transformer spectaculairement, contribue à l'extraordinaire plasticité des acteurs américains, au moins depuis le légendaire Lon Chaney, "l'homme aux mille visages". C'est l'une des prérogatives d'Hollywood, qui a toujours excellé à remodeler à son profit les esprits, les corps, les talents, les genres venus d'ici ou d'ailleurs. Le triomphe de ce frégolisme est mis en scène dans The Informant !, au risque de la folie furieuse qu'il suppose non seulement pour le personnage, mais aussi pour la société dont il est le produit. Le film encense et stigmatise tout à la fois cette "qualité", dont il tire son miel.

Tout cela renvoie à la personnalité et au cinéma de Soderbergh lui-même, dont l'éclectisme et la vitesse d'exécution défient l'identification. Quel rapport entre le jeune indépendant consacré de Sexe, mensonges et vidéo (1989), l'expérimentateur ombrageux de Schizopolis (1996), le réalisateur de comédie dramatique populaire (Erin Brockovich, seule contre tous, 2000), le cinéaste oscarisé du film d'action Traffic (2000), l'amateur de polar flegmatique (Ocean's Eleven, 2001), l'adaptateur de science-fiction inquiétante (Solaris, 2002), le concepteur de petite forme artisanale (Bubble, 2005) ou de biopic politique fleuve (Che, 2008) ?

Cinéaste déconcertant - il aime masquer son travail de monteur ou d'opérateur sous divers pseudonymes, adore mélanger les genres a priori antagonistes, et met régulièrement en scène des histoires de complot, de trahison et de faux-semblant -, Soderbergh règle dans son oeuvre le rapport ambivalent qu'il entretient au récit-maître hollywoodien. A l'instar de Mark Whitacre, le héros qui lui ressemble peut-être le plus, il fait de l'utilisation de la puissance adverse et de la fuite en avant ses armes de prédilection.

Jacques Mandelbaum, Le Monde, 30.09.09

 

 

Regresó más convencido, pero hasta 1969 no obtuvo el "permiso gubernamental" para editar libros. A trancas y barrancas nació Anagrama hace 40 años, en un pequeño piso de la zona alta de Barcelona, y allí sigue, aunque en un local más grande. Jorge Herralde (Barcelona, 1935) lleva meses celebrándolo. En la Feria de Guadalajara (México); en Nueva York con el PEN Club; con Biblioteca Anagrama, 100 títulos para quiosco; con la colección Otra Vuelta de Tuerca; con una muestra en Barcelona; con una fiesta hoy...

Anagrama tiene un fondo de casi 3.000 títulos y nueve colecciones, entre las que Panorama de Narrativas (a la que el viejo patriarca de Planeta, José Manuel Lara Hernández, calificó de "peste amarilla") y Narrativas Hispánicas van como un tiro. Herralde ha impuesto modas: los franceses, los italianos, los anglosajones y desde hace unos años los latinoamericanos. Tiene también dos premios, el Anagrama de ensayo y el Herralde de novela. "Los dos son muy veteranos y sirven para descubrir nuevos autores".

El 40% de la facturación de Anagrama corresponde a libros de fondo. "Hemos tenido algunos best sellers, como El dios de las pequeñas cosas y Los girasoles ciegos. Pero lo nuestro son los long sellers, como Nabokov, Capote o Kerouac". "Una de las características de los editores independientes es que apostamos por el fracaso, aunque a veces nos llevamos sorpresas. A mí me ha pasado con Patrick Modiano. Fue publicado por buenas editoriales y tuvo buenas críticas, pero pasó sin pena ni gloria. Leí Un pedigrí y me gustó mucho y lo publiqué aun sabiendo que no vendería. De la siguiente, En el café de la juventud perdida, vendimos 12.000".

¿Cuál ha sido la mayor sorpresa? "Los girasoles ciegos, de Alberto Méndez. Me lo entregó con gran inseguridad y humildad. Me pareció buenísimo. A finales de 2008 habíamos vendido 250.000 copias. Ganó el Premio de la Crítica y el Nacional de narrativa, a título póstumo".

¿Y Bolaño? "Tanto Méndez como Bolaño han salido en The New Yorker y esto es insólito en un país hostil a la literatura extranjera. Se ha convertido en un autor de culto. Es excepcional, un poeta maldito, que en 8 o 10 años escribió un corpus increíble. La demostración de que el triunfo de la literatura de calidad es posible".

Herralde, a quien no le preocupa en exceso el libro electrónico, sigue atentamente el panorama mundial de la edición. "Lo que profetizó André Schiffrin está sucediendo. Los inversores, editores o no, buscan una rentabilidad que no es posible".

Anagrama ha perdido a algunos autores, el último Enrique Vila-Matas. "El número de los que se han ido es minúsculo. Unos, porque han recibido mejores ofertas y otros, porque lo ha decidido el editor, para dejar sitio a otros. Es humano que oigan los cantos de sirena de los grandes grupos azuzados por determinados agentes literarios. Se ofrecen anticipos que no son reales. A veces se paga el doble de lo que se venderá. Es dumping, vender algo a precio inferior a su precio de coste".

Con 75 novedades al año (auténtico numerus clausus), más otros 40 en bolsillo, Herralde ve con tranquilidad a Anagrama. "Sólo me jubilará la biología y de momento no está por la labor. La sucesión editorial es particularmente difícil, pero puede ocurrir, como en Planeta, Gallimard o Feltrinelli. Mi futuro lo veo muy bien. Estoy desde hace 30 años con Lali Gubern y ella lleva 20 trabajando conmigo. Cuando yo no esté ella se hará cargo de Anagrama y decidirá sobre las posibles opciones: venta, alianza...".

Rosa Mora, El Pais, 30.09.09

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Solo/jubilara/biologia/elpepucul/20090930elpepicul_4/Tes

 

Few could have imagined this day, when communist ideas first began to spread in China in the 1920s. The nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek's vicious crackdown in Shanghai in 1927 threatened to wipe out the party completely. But communist armed forces established bases in the south and turned from the urban poor to the peasantry as the base of their support. As Chiang Kai-shek continued his campaign against them, they embarked on the Long March in 1934: an astounding journey taking them thousands of miles to a new centre in the north.

Three years later, the two sides were forced into an alliance against a common enemy – the Japanese, who had invaded. By the end of the second world war, full-scale civil war resumed and Communist party membership, and the Red forces, had mushroomed. After three more years of bitter fighting – resulting in at least two million deaths, according to official figures – Mao Zedong proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.

The last six decades have seen extraordinary accomplishments, misjudgments and atrocities and remarkable reversals. The party would seize land and hand it to peasant farmers; force them to form communes; then allow them to farm it individually again. The 30 years since reform and opening have seen the undoing of much of the previous 30's work, as "socialism with Chinese characteristics" – a capitalist economy, allied to the existing political system – has transformed the nation Mao made.

Hou Bo, Mao's photographer

Hou Bo should never have got the assignment. Aged just 25, she had picked up a camera after stints as a nurse and teaching peasant farmers to read. But the more experienced photographers were in the provinces and could not reach Beijing in time. So when Chairman Mao stood on the rostrum of Tiananmen Square and proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic to cheering crowds beneath, it was Hou who captured the moment.

Crammed into a tiny space – with her husband, Xu Xiaobing, who was filming – she struggled to compose a shot with her Rolleiflex. "The machine could only take 12 pictures at a time. I didn't have a wide-angle or long lens," she says. Leaning far back over the rails, she realised it was a long way down if she fell.

"It was dangerous – very dangerous. But I was very excited and this photo was very important," she says. "Later, I noticed somebody was hanging on to my shirt [to protect me]. I turned around and had a look. Oh – it was Zhou Enlai." Zhou was, after Mao, one of the defining figures of the revolution; while Mao led the country, Zhou was premier.

The result was the first in a string of iconic shots. Hou became Mao's personal photographer and, over 12 years, produced pictures that burnished his image and shaped the way he is seen even now: on the seashore; pensive before the Yellow river; jovial in a crowd. Many other pictures were not revealed until after his death, judged too intimate or inappropriate to his stature.

She grew to know the chairman well and talks fondly of his love for swimming – sometimes with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Living in party headquarters, she became so close to other leaders that she would confide in them; "They treated us as family members," she says.

Hou had grown up in the communist fold, joining after her family fled invading Japanese troops. It provided her marriage and her career; she met her husband in Yan'an – the revolutionary base – and learned from him how to take pictures.

But the couple's loyalty was no protection against the brutal excesses of the cultural revolution. Both were beaten savagely and exiled to labour camps – separately – in the countryside for years. She is not clear why she was persecuted; millions of others were too, and hundreds of thousands killed. Like many, she blames those around Mao, not the man himself. "Jiang Qing [Mao's wife, and one of the notorious 'gang of four'] criticised me . . . saying I was a fake party member; those sorts of accusations," she recalls. "I joined at the age of 14. These accusations could not stand up. But there was no way out, so I just did the labour work."

Her ordeal ended when the cultural revolution petered out in the mid-1970s. No one told her she could leave, but when even the guards abandoned the fields, she walked away, back to her family. Only in 1977 – a decade after the accusations – was she exonerated.

Frail but articulate, she lives in a comfortable Beijing flat with her husband, now 94, their son and daughter-in-law. Alongside the pictures of Hou and Xu with Mao and other leaders, there is one of their son with the magician David Copperfield. Like their country, the couple have been on a long and strange journey.

"We've had many good experiences, but there have been some mistakes. Ordinary people can understand that."

Hu Muying, daughter of Mao's secretary

They say the revolution was born in Yan'an. So was Hu Muying. She arrived at the communist base in 1941, the year her father became Mao Zedong's secretary. Her mother was another loyal cadre. "Jiang Qing ['Madame Mao', a key figure in the cultural revolution] often asked us children to go to her home to play with [their daughter] Li Na," says Hu. "We only knew the chairman as a very kind and friendly 'uncle'."

As they grew up, they followed him about. "He would take us out and walk around. And we could ride on his jeep – that was great fun. He liked listening to Beijing opera and Li Na and other kids could sing a few lines," she recalls.

Then, in spring 1949, the communists marched into Beijing. Hu remembers the excitement of listening to the founding ceremony on her school's radio; and, later, of learning about the creation of the communes. Her class smelted iron in the Great Leap Forward – the disastrous, ideologically driven attempt, that started in 1957, to send harvests and industrial production skyrocketing. Instead, it produced a famine which killed tens of millions.But to urban youth the era was intoxicating: "We felt this was the new China . . . every day something new happened," she says.

Her father, Hu Qiaomu, helped draft China's first constitution; her mother, Gu Yu, worked on projects to build the atomic bomb and first satellite. Their work was so sensitive that she learned about it mainly after their deaths – and through denouncements of them in the cultural revolution.

"Those 10 years were a big spiritual transition for us," she says. Her parents were purged and Hu, a new graduate, sent to work in a foundry. "Everyone was working hard to construct the new China. How could everything suddenly become like this?" she asks, even now a little bewildered.

But her parents had no doubts about Mao's leadership, pointing to the country's growing industry and international heft. "Though they were criticised and denounced, they believed Chairman Mao's intention in starting these activities was for China's interest. Personal pain was not a big deal if the country was better," she says.

Hu Qiaomu remained a hardline Marxist who, after rehabilitation, blocked reformists and opposed the economic changes which set China on its current path. His daughter, at 68, is director of Sons and Daughters of Yan'an: her peers gather regularly to mark their parents' achievements. For her, it is simple: "Mao Zedong, in my heart, is a great man. If the sun has a black spot, it is still the sun," she says.

Besides, she says, mistakes were corrected and now the country is developing fast. She worries about the "more and more serious" problems of corruption, drug use and prostitution, but adds that she is reassured by the zeal of officials tackling such issues.

Still, there is a shade of wistfulness as she suggests that people are happiest in their childhood and youth. "As you grew older, everything got more and more complicated," Hu says. "There was good news; and at the same time you would see things you did not wish to see or hear."

Sidney Rittenberg, GI turned cadre

Sidney Rittenberg missed the proclamation of the People's Republic. It was months later that he learned of its creation. "They put me in a cell [where] the windows were boarded up and there was newspaper pasted over the boards on the inside. And one of the papers was for 1 October, the People's Daily in big red print," he says.

It was a bittersweet moment. Rittenberg, who had arrived in China as a US soldier in the early 40s, stayed on and ended up joining the communists at their base in Yan'an in 1946.The young idealist's leftwing beliefs were reinforced by what he saw on his arrival. "Human beings were treated very cheaply. If you had some standing – power, money – you could just wipe people out," he says. "If you asked a country person what he did, he wouldn't say, 'I'm a farmer.' He'd say, 'I suffer.'"

But he saw a sharp contrast between the corruption of Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, siphoning foreign aid into the black market, and the communists. "I felt it was like living with the early Christians – those kinds of stories; the top leaders lived very frugal lives," he says. He joined them to work on propaganda and monitoring the foreign media – including the Guardian.

Despite the apparent puritanism, the Saturday dances and gin rummy sessions in Mao's cave-house were a shock after the earnest conversation of American communists in the US. "People like Zhou Enlai, Zhu De – as you played, they would cuff each other around and tease each other and have great sport," he says. Then he pauses. "Mao liked to play too. But no one cuffed him around." He chuckles.

Rittenberg distinguishes between the man he knew then and the near-emperor of later years – the first, "the best listener I had ever met"; the second, holding forth – though not everyone has such a rosy view of the early days. Political purges had begun long before the party reached Yan'an.

By the time Rittenberg's dreams of a revolution became true, he had been jailed for attempting to wreck it: "I didn't know that Stalin had personally sent a written message to Mao, asking that I be arrested as chief of an international spy ring."

Despite 16 years in solitary confinement, Rittenberg chose to stay in China when released and was reinstated in official communist circles. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the cultural revolution, only to fall victim himself, leading to his second spell in jail and the persecution of his family.

"No one in his right mind would choose to have that sort of holocaust," he says. But, he added, it made people more critical; less willing to believe what they were told. And he cites the staggering improvements in life expectancy – which has more than doubled – as proof of the last 60 years' worth of achievements. "But could it have been done with less sacrifice?" he asks. "Undoubtedly it could."

Liu Tianyou, Red Army soldier

She didn't have a name of her own until she was 17. No one had thought she needed or deserved one. She had no mother, no father and no money; she was a girl.

She survived by herding pigs and selling rice liquor on the streets. And when Red Army recruiters in the early 1930s arrived in her hometown in Sichuan province, she enrolled with the name they gave her: Liu Tianyou.

Now, at 95, she lives in a care home for veterans in the former communist base of Yan'an, Shaanxi. Few of her former comrades enjoy this comfort; but, as another resident explained, the authorities like them to live there "to do propaganda and education work".

Liu has become something of a celebrity as a communist stalwart. She took part in the Olympic torch relay and though she never met Mao, "Chairman Hu" – as she calls the Chinese president – visited her recently.

When we arrive she is in hospital, recovering from respiratory problems. Even using an oxygen mask, each sentence is a slow, painful struggle – yet she is keen to talk.

"The power of the masses was mighty . . . The Red Army attacked despotic gentry and evil landlords, people who exploited our country and exploited individuals," she says, recalling her reasons for joining. "Everybody was unified. The Red Army never scolded people or beat people up. It never looked down on ordinary people, whether they were rich or poor. If you were poor, they would give you food and clothes to wear."

Not all veterans have such rosy memories; others tell of forced recruitment, brutal purges and strategic errors. What all agree on, however, is the improbability of their victory. Vastly outnumbered and outgunned by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, many fought with spears, clubs and wooden "guns" until they could capture Kuomintang

weapons. The lucky had cloth shoes; others wore grass sandals.

Liu was there for the hardest part of all: the Long March. Driven out of their southern bases by the nationalists, the communists trekked for 8,000 miles in desperate conditions to their new base in Yan'an. Their extraordinarily circuitous route reflected uncertainty about their ultimate destination, as well as the need to avoid hostile forces. Only a fifth of them completed the journey: barely 40,000. Others deserted, fell in battle or starved along the way. Yet this ignominious retreat became enshrined as a glorious victory; the guts of survivors made it a founding myth.

The bitterest time, Liu recalls, was crossing the grasslands and the snow-covered mountains. Many froze to death. Desperate for nourishment, the troops stripped bark from the trees to eat and boiled up their leather belts.

"The soldiers before her had eaten all the grass; she had to eat the grass's roots," her son tells us.

Yet Liu remembers her soldiering days with relish. "The Kuomintang wanted to wipe out the communists. Aiya! The Red Army had such strong power. How could you finish them off? Wherever you went, the Red Army was there. The Red Army is wily!"

She takes as much delight in the republic she helped to found: "China is a great country now. The whole world knows it," she says.

Tania Branigan, The Guardian, 30.09.09

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/30/peoples-republic-china-anniversary

 

 

Lucy O'Donnell — devenue Lucy Vodden après son mariage — était dans la même classe que Julian Lennon, le fils de John Lennon, lorsqu'elle avait 3 ans en 1966. Le jeune Lennon avait réalisé une peinture et, la montrant à son père, lui avait expliqué: "It's Lucy in the sky with diamonds" (C'est Lucy dans le ciel avec des diamants). Cette version, qu'elle avait racontée elle-même en 2007, a été appuyée par plusieurs biographies consacrées aux Fab Four.

La chanson, extraite de l'album légendaire "Sgt Pepper's lonely hearts club band", qui a fêté ses quarante ans en juin 2007, incarne depuis des décennies la "culture drogue" des années 1960 car elle est considérée comme faisant l'apologie du LSD, comme le suggèrent les initiales du titre.

Les deux anciens camarades de classe avaient renoué ces derniers mois lorsque Julian Lennon avait appris que Lucy avait contracté un lupus. Selon un communiqué, Julian et sa mère Cynthia "sont sous le choc et attristés par la disparition de Lucy et leurs pensées vont à son mari et à sa famille".

Le Monde, 28.09.09

http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2009/09/28/la-lucy-des-beatles-s-est-eteinte_1246471_3246.html#ens_id=1237017

 

 

La casa en la que ha muerto Muñoz Rojas se convirtió en uno de los lugares míticos de la literatura española moderna cuando, en 1951, se publicó Las cosas del campo. Considerado uno de los mejores conjuntos de prosa de las letras hispánicas del siglo XX, el libro tiene mucho de testimonio lírico y último -está cargado de palabras a punto de extinguirse- sobre el mundo rural, un universo que en medio siglo había cambiado más que en todo el milenio precedente. "En las cosechadoras el canto es difícil", escribía Muñoz Rojas en el prólogo que puso al frente del libro en 1976.

Ese año, y gracias a su aparición en la colección más popular de Destino, los lectores redescubrieron a un escritor que era amigo de los autores de la generación del 27, pero que las historias de la literatura clasifican en la del 36 junto a figuras como Luis Rosales, Dionisio Ridruejo o Leopoldo Panero. Publicó su primer libro -Versos de retorno- en 1929; el último -La voz que me llama-, en 2004. Por el medio hay decena y media de poemarios que le valieron premios como el Nacional de Literatura -en 1998, por Objetos perdidos- o el Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana, el más prestigioso del género, que recibió en 2002.

Tan destacado en la prosa memorialística como en el verso, Muñoz Rojas recogió en Amigos y maestros y La gran musaraña los recuerdos de su infancia de huérfano "temprano criado por una abuela", los años de formación en Cambridge, donde trató a T. S. Eliot, y el "miedo supremo" de la Guerra Civil, en la que vio cómo su casa era arrasada por unos radicales de extrema izquierda. "Me conmovió más la inutilidad del hecho que el valor material de lo desaparecido", escribió.

"Cambridge mezclado con Antequera, ¿qué puede dar?". La pregunta se la hizo Vicente Aleixandre en un ya famoso retrato de José Antonio Muñoz Rojas titulado Entre corte y cortijo e incluido en el mítico Los encuentros. El premio Nobel de 1977 había conocido a su amigo cuando éste frecuentaba en Málaga a Emilio Prados y a Manuel Altolaguirre. La amistad que le unía a la generación del 27 creció con la de Dámaso Alonso y Gerardo Diego, y se quebró por un tiempo cuando la mitad de sus miembros se vio obligada a tomar el camino del exilio. Se quebró pero no se rompió.

Muñoz Rojas, que enviaba alimentos a la esposa y al hijo de Miguel Hernández cuando éste estaba encarcelado, se convirtió además en uno de los puentes más sólidos entre los exiliados del exterior y los del interior. En los años más inhóspitos de la posguerra, utilizó los seminarios de la Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones del Banco Urquijo como refugio para intelectuales sospechosos o directamente expulsados de sus cátedras por motivos políticos. También para los desterrados que, con el tiempo, fueron regresando a España. Xavier Zubiri, Julián Marías, Ramón Carande y José Bergamín fueron algunos de los beneficiarios de una iniciativa que, como recordaba él mismo, despertó entre los medios oficiales "tantas reservas como sorpresa".

José Antonio Muñoz Rojas no pudo ya salir de casa para asistir a los congresos y homenajes que celebran su inminente centenario. En la mesa camilla, de espaldas a una ventana y al ladrido de los perros, recibía a las visitas. Fue un hombre de otro tiempo. También de otro espacio. Sumido en una paulatina sordera, atendía a sus interlocutores y sonreía con los ojos. Como siempre. Su amigo Aleixandre ya lo pintó así: "Sabe demasiado para permanecer serio del todo este andaluz pasado por las trampas del mundo".

Javier Rodríguez Marcos, El Pais, 30.09.09

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/puente/Espanas/elpepicul/20090930elpepicul_2/Tes

 

Gordon Brown bolstered his position yesterday by unveiling a list of policy announcements aimed at securing Labour a fourth term by winning back voters in Middle England who have deserted the party.

In a fighting speech to the Labour conference, the Prime Minister positioned Labour as the party of the "mainstream majority" and the "squeezed middle" against a Conservative Party which he claimed stood for the "privileged few".

In a response to the MPs' expenses scandal, he promised a landmark referendum on scrapping Britain's first-past-the-post system soon after the general election. He announced a personal U-turn by coming out in favour of the alternative vote (AV) system, used in Australia, in which people rank candidates in order of preference. The bottom one drops out, with second preferences redistributed until one candidate enjoys more than 50 per cent support. Although not a proportional system, it would be an historic change if introduced in Britain.

There was a surprise ambitious promise to provide free care at home for 350,000 elderly people at a cost of £400m; a pledge to maintain the schools budget and child benefit and to enshrine into law Labour's commitments to raise spending on overseas aid. But there were few examples of the spending cuts needed to pay for them.

Mr Brown embraced the Blairite agenda on antisocial behaviour by announcing that 16- and 17-year-old mothers would be placed in a supervised hostel rather than a council flat; "tough love" for Britain's 500,000 problem families, he said. Councils would also be given the power to ban 24-hour drinking throughout their area and neighbourhood police would begin intensive action against bad behaviour in the next few months.

The policy-rich, hour-long speech was designed to convince voters that Labour has not run out of steam after 12 years in power. It delighted Labour delegates and silenced the speculation that he could be ousted before the general election – for now. However, some ministers believe the question will resurface in December if Labour fails to close the Tories' big opinion poll lead by then.

In effect, Mr Brown fired the starting gun for a long election campaign likely to last until next April or May by repeatedly mapping out the choice between Labour and the Tories. Insisting that he came from "an ordinary family in an ordinary town", he did not mention David Cameron by name but implied that he did not. He admitted some flaws and mistakes but his message was that if the voters decided to reject him and take a chance on the Tories, that would not be "without consequence". "The election to come will not be about my future – it's about your future," he said. "Your job. Your home. Your children's school. Your hospital. Your community. It is about the future of your country."

Drawing what he hopes will be the crucial election dividing line, Mr Brown said: "There are only two options on tax and spending – and only one of them benefits Britain's hard-working majority. One is reducing the deficit by cutting frontline services – and that is the Conservative approach. The other is getting the deficit down while maintaining and indeed improving frontline public services – the Labour approach."

Warning that Conservative plans to cut inheritance tax would leave even less for frontline services, he said: "These are not cuts they [the Tories] would make because they have to – these are spending cuts they are making because they want to. It is not inevitable – it is the change they choose."

The Prime Minister also rehearsed his election lines by claiming the Tories "got the economic call of the century" wrong in the past year. The crisis had discredited their pro-market philosophy, he argued.

He questioned Mr Cameron's claim to have changed his party, arguing that he could not deliver change for the country.

His crackdown on antisocial behaviour drew wry smiles from some Blairites, who recalled that as Chancellor he often opposed Tony Blair's measures to combat it. One former cabinet minister said: "This is a very late conversion. He obstructed Tony at every turn. He wouldn't give the Home Office the money for it. He wanted us to keep quiet about crime, saying that talking about it would increase people's fear of it."

Missing from the speech was a formal announcement that Mr Brown would take part in a series of televised debates with Mr Cameron and the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg – the first at a British election. The Prime Minister is expected to agree but is believed to have decided not to announce it yesterday as it would have overshadowed his policy commitments.

Some ministers are urging Mr Brown to declare his hand and Mr Cameron said: "I cannot believe that the Prime Minister is still sitting on the fence. I can't work out this morning whether he's dithering or bottling, I expect it's a combination of both. But come on Gordon, get off the fence, agree to the debate, bring it on."

Eric Pickles, the Tory chairman, said: "This was a speech with no vision and no argument – just a long shopping list with no price tag. Gordon Brown continues to treat people like fools. He didn't acknowledge the mistakes he has made or that his Government has run out of money.

"He talked about change and a new age, but this speech was full of the same old political attacks and was firmly stuck in the past."

Andrew Grice, The Independent, 30.09.09

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brown-fires-starting-gun-in-race-for-downing-st-1795146.html

 

 

Les pourparlers ont achoppé sur la présence à la fois d'un huissier et d'un représentant de chaque candidat dans la salle de recomptage alors que la Cour n'admettait que la présence d'un huissier par requérant, refusant celle de représentants des requérants. Les huissiers que devaient désigner les candidats requérants "devaient en même temps être auxiliaires de justice et également représentants de ces requérants", a répondu la présidente de la Cour constitutionnelle, Marie Madeleine Mborantsuo, qui a déploré l'attitude des opposants.

Alors que les travaux devaient commencer, "à notre grande surprise, certains requérants (...) ont assiégé la Cour, avec avocats, représentants (...) s'imposant aux membres de la Cour et voulant participer à cette séance qui est une séance interne à la Cour", a-t-elle dit. La Cour constitutionnelle "n'est pas un organe politique où les acteurs politiques peuvent venir imposer leur point de vue", a critiqué Mme Mborantsuo.

L'OPPOSITION VEUT CONFRONTER LES PROCÈS-VERBAUX

N'ayant pas obtenu gain de cause, les candidats ont annoncé mardi en fin de journée leur décision de ne pas participer au recomptage et de n'envoyer aucun huissier. "La Cour nous a dit qu'elle faisait un travail interne et qu'elle voulait que les huissiers soient là pour attester qu'elle a vraiment fait ce travail. Ce recomptage n'a pas de valeur pour nous, ni pour la vérité que nous recherchons", a affirmé à la presse l'ex-ministre de l'intérieur André Mba Obame, officiellement classé 2e de la présidentielle (25,88% des voix) et qui revendique la victoire.

"Nous sommes prêts à participer au recomptage à condition qu'il corresponde à ce que nous demandons : qu'il y ait confrontation des procès-verbaux (des résultats de chaque bureau de vote), des listes d'émargement et des feuilles de dépouillement des 2 815 bureaux en présence des représentants des candidats", a affirmé M. Mba Obame. "La Cour nous a dit que ça peut se faire plus tard. Nous avons confiance dans la Cour", a-t-il conclu.

Onze requêtes en annulation de la présidentielle dont celles de MM. Mba Obame et Mamboundou ont été introduites auprès de la Cour constitutionnelle contre l'élection d'Ali Bongo, fils du président Omar Bongo décédé en juin après quarante et un ans au pouvoir. L'annonce, le 3 septembre, des résultats a été suivie par des incidents à Libreville, d'émeutes et pillages à Port-Gentil (ouest), où trois personnes sont mortes selon un bilan officiel, cinq selon l'opposition.

Le Monde, 29.09.09

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2009/09/29/gabon-un-recomptage-des-voix-sans-l-opposition_1246956_3212.html